


Games Children Play

by capanon



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Getting Together, Ghosts, M/M, Not Kuroko no Basket: Extra Game Compliant, Post-Winter Cup, Sexuality Crisis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-27 20:02:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5062138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capanon/pseuds/capanon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Somewhere in Tokyo exists a court that is plagued by evil. No one knows how it began or what sort of entity lingers there, but as the legend goes, anyone who plays basketball there will suffer a terrible tragedy at the hands of a malevolent spirit...</i><br/> <br/>"That's bullshit," Daiki said. Then, "Let's do it."</p><p>[The Winter Cup is over, and everyone has moved on... Except Daiki.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is a halloween fic! updates probably every day and ending on halloween.

_Somewhere in Tokyo exists a court that is plagued by evil. No one knows how it began or what sort of entity lingers there, but as the legend goes, anyone who plays basketball there will suffer a terrible tragedy at the hands of a malevolent spirit..._

"That's bullshit," Daiki said. Then, "Let's do it."

Ryou clutched his bento to his chest, quaking. "But it's haunted!" he cried. "Weren't you _listening_?"

"Please," Daiki scoffed. "There's no such thing as ghosts. I bet it's just a bunch of shitty kids playing pranks."

"If there's no such thing as ghosts, why are you so terrified of them?" Satsuki cut in, one finely manicured brow arching up.

"Am not," Daiki said, mouth full. He plucked another sausage from Ryou's bento and popped it in his mouth. It was a new experience for Daiki, eating lunch with his team while actually feeling like he was with _his_ team. Touou was no longer a place where he merely existed.

Also, Ryou was a really great cook.

Satsuki clicked her tongue when Daiki moved to snag another piece of whatever he could get his hands on, but Ryou offered the entire container to Daiki. "I made two," he said. "This one is yours."

"You're spoiling him," Satsuki despaired. Daiki smirked at her.

Not even the third years wanted to go to the haunted court. Wakamatsu looked at Daiki like something unpleasant he'd stepped on and just walked away muttering. His loss, Daiki figured. Wakamatsu was an ass anyway.

Imayoshi probably would have gotten a kick out of it, but he was studying for exams and looking the closest to stressed Daiki had ever seen him. He'd peeked into the library and caught Imayoshi with his glasses skewed, sleeping while sitting up. His back was ramrod straight, and if Daiki hadn't noticed his eyes were closed, he wouldn't have believed he was sleeping. Terrifying stuff, that.

"You should let it go," Satsuki said. She stopped Daiki before he could walk into the locker room. "Everyone's busy, Dai-chan. And I've heard that court is in a really bad part of the city." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't sulk, either! I can see that look in your eyes!"

"Well, now I'm not inviting you," Daiki grumbled, pushing the locker room door open and leaving her in the hall. Satsuki just rolled her eyes and walked away.

Didn't anyone have any fighting spirit? Any sense of adventure? Daiki was so _bored_. With no more games until the spring, he was stuck with just practice, and what kind of challenge was that? Calling Tetsu and demanding a game with him and Kagami crossed Daiki's mind once or twice (or a thousand times), but he couldn't bring himself to make the call.

"Tell me you're not still going on about that," Wakamatsu demanded, tugging his practice jersey on. "That haunted court thing is a load of crap anyway. Who'd care about _that_?"

People who know what fun is, Daiki figured, but Wakamatsu wouldn't know fun if it bit him in the ass. No point telling him anything.

He thought about it all during practice, including the half hour he spent dozing on the bleachers. A basketball court was a basketball court. He could invite some other people. He didn't have to actually tell them where they were going.

Daiki ignored Wakamatsu's enraged shouts and rolled over, his back to the court. He sent the first message to Kise who he knew would wet himself over the invite.

That he'd more than likely drag Tetsu with him was also a plus.

Kise replied in three seconds flat. It wasn't what he expected. _sorry aominecchi! i have a shoot in kyoto all week so im even missing school... (ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ rematch when i get back?_

Typical. Daiki finally gives him the time of day, and Kise lets him down. He didn't bother with a reply, just scrolled to the next name, then stopped. Midorima? Really? Was he _really_ that desperate?

Turns out he was, but Midorima's reply was just another rejection to add to the pile. _Momoi already informed me of this. Don't bother. I have no intention of interfering with evil spirits._

Okay, yeah, Daiki admitted he should have seen that one coming. And it would be a cold day in Hell before he invited Akashi anywhere. He still wasn't convinced of that 'changed man' routine, no matter what Tetsu said.

Daiki rolled onto his back again, Wakamatsu having been distracted by something the third string idiots did. He didn't have to go. No one was making him, obviously, but how damn cool did that sound? A _haunted basketball court_ , never mind that he didn't believe in the haunting bit. It was the principle of the thing. And besides, hadn't someone once said all new experiences were good ones? Something like that.

The sound of a ball hitting flesh echoed in the gym, followed immediately by Ryou's shriek of, "I'm sorry!"

"Dumbass, you were the one hit!"

With the team occupied, Daiki slipped away to the locker room to change. If he couldn't get anyone to go with him, then he'd go by his own damn self.

Ryou's story was pretty vague about location, but he'd gotten the details out of him after lunch. That guy could always be counted on to crack under pressure - off the court, anyway. Satsuki wasn't exactly wrong about it being a trashy part of town, but Daiki didn't give a damn about that either way. A court was a court was a court.

In this case, though, the trashy part was pretty literal.

Everything about the court screamed of how little use it saw. Trash spread across the blacktop, cans and bags and old food containers, tossed from street - it was enough to make a grown man cry.

"Fucking disrespectful." Daiki kicked a can and watched it soar in a graceful arch to the opposite end of the court, rebounding off the fence and skittering across the blacktop to the middle. It was a waste of a perfectly good court, and that stupid urban legend was probably the cause of it all. Daiki got mad about it all over again. He kicked a few more cans around out of sheer spite before he spotted a ball tucked behind the hoop. A perfectly good ball! He grabbed it, admired the lack of wear anywhere on it, and scoffed. "Unbelievable," he said to himself. "The things people throw away..."

He dribbled the ball around the court. The more he looked it, the clearer it became the ball didn't belong with the rest of the trash. Daiki figured it had to belong to someone who came because the rumors and got spooked and abandoned the ball. Tough luck for that guy. Daiki was a disciple of the "finders keepers" school. Found a ball? Got a new ball.

Looks like the trip was worth it after all.

He shot a few hoops, played against an imaginary duo until he got pissed at himself for pretending Tetsu was there. He threw the ball at the backboard as hard as he could, anger sparking something ugly inside of him. The backboard cracked, the sound gunshot loud. It brought Daiki back to Earth, back to the court he was standing on in what Satsuki deemed a bad area of town. Night had fallen, and he was alone. Reeling with a sudden sense of unease, Daiki looked around for the ball only to find that it was right back where it started just behind the goal post. He jogged over, scooped it up, and left.

"So much for the haunted court," he muttered, clutching the ball under one arm while he zipped his jacket. The night was unusually cold, but no matter how much he bundled into his jacket or how fast he moved, Daiki couldn't seem to get warm.

~

"I'm home," Daiki calls out. It's instinct at this point. He knows there won't be an answer, and as expected, his mother left a note on the table reminding him she has a night shift and not to forget to feed himself and so on. She even wrote Satsuki's number at the bottom with "just in case" and a smiley face next to it because she's a little bit of an asshole, a defining trait in the Aomine family gene pool.

He skips whatever meal his mom left in the fridge for him and grabs a bag of chips before wandering up to his room. The ball needs to go somewhere, so he tosses it into the closet with the rest. He has it down to a science: open the closet enough to shove the ball in and slam the door before anything else falls out. Foolproof.

"Ah, I'm tired," Daiki said, tumbling backwards onto the be. He ate a few chips and stared at the ceiling. He felt dead tired, like he could close his eyes and sleep until spring, which, hey, not a bad idea. He could skip all the shitty practices and roll right out of bed and into a game.

At some point, he must have fallen asleep, because next thing Daiki he knew he was waking up to a full body sweat that made the chill in the room feel ten times worse. He'd one of those nightmares that wasn't so scary once you were awake but at the time made you want to piss yourself: some kid standing at the side of his bed in a jersey he couldn't remember ever seeing, demanding he get up and play, _treat me seriously this time_. Daiki felt goosebumps break out across his bare skin. The kid's face, whoever he was, slipped through Daiki's grasping fingers like water the more he tried to recall it.

He sat up and started to stretch, but the bag of chips he'd apparently left _on his chest_ when he fell asleep dropped open-side down onto his floor. He made it worse when he tried to clean it up, his feet crushing bits into the carpet, so giving up seemed like a good idea. The clock read one in the morning, way too late to be up when he had school in the morning (and the threat of Satsuki literally dragging his ass out of bed if he didn't answer his phone), but Daiki felt wired, a combination of post-nightmare energy and a sudden bottomless hunger.

Daiki wandered back to the kitchen, not bothering to turn all the lights on. He grabbed the tupperware his mom left for him and peeled back the type, frowning into it. It was some kind of lumpy meat thing with green beans, which was good enough. He ate it in front of the open fridge and then went for the fruit drawer, finding it empty. 

When he closed the fridge, the apartment seemed too big, too dark, too quiet. Daiki turned on the lights - all of them. He turned the television on as loud as it could go without the neighbors complaining, flipping through the channels until he found a rerun of an old basketball game. He'd left his phone out, so he grabbed it and scrolled through his messages, passing by Satsuki's six increasingly profane messages back to the one Tetsu sent him a few days before, the one from a month before, back and back until he was into Teiko era messages, a flood of _where are you, please come to practice, Aomine-kun, Aomine-kun, Aomine-kun_.

"These are a waste of memory," he told his phone. A wild cheer rose from the television, followed by the sound of the buzzer. Daiki stared hard at the delete button. He glanced up at the television and saw the teams lining up to shake hands.

Daiki tossed the phone away and refused to look at it. A tampon commercial never seemed so interesting.

When his eyelids began to droop Daiki wandered back to bed, climbing under the comforter to ward off the cold. He let himself drift, replaying games in his mind to ward off thoughts of Tetsu. One moment he was running through Kise's plays from the Inter High, the next he was standing on a court, dribbling a ball up and down over and over again.

No one else stood on the court with him, but Daiki was struck with feeling that he was being pressured. He feinted left, then drove right, jumping into a fade away to score. He felt the roar of the crow and met its intensity with a jagged grin. Akashi ran up behind him, allowing a nod and a, "Nice play," before instructing him to take his place.

"What's the point?" he asked. "They're never going to beat us anyway!"

"It's only right to respect the other team," came Akashi's disapproving answer, only he wasn't Akashi anymore, he was Tetsu.

"Wait a minute..." Daiki looked a Tetsu. He was forgetting something, wasn't he? But Tetsu was already turning away, jogging back to the other side of the court. "Oi, Tetsu! Who are we playing?"

Tetsu was gone. The crowd and lights vanished, and Daiki stood on the haunted court.

"Tetsu?" He looked around. No ball, no team - what was he doing there? There was something he needed to remember.

Something crashed into him from behind, and Daiki reeled forward. He felt a hand crush over his mouth and nose, blocking his airways. He scrabbled at the hand, but it was too strong and wouldn't budge.

He couldn't breathe, he _couldn't breathe_ -

Daiki woke up flailing, gasping for breath. He caught his arms and legs in the sheets and tumbled off the bed, slamming painfully against the floor.

He could still feel pressure against his face like a physical presence, looking wildly around the room. He didn't feel alone.

But the room was empty. Daiki's breathing slowed, and he slammed his fist on the floor, shame flooding through him at his own foolishness. What the hell was going on with him? Already the dream - no, the nightmare - was fading. He could still remember Tetsu, though, watching his back as he jogged away.

"Fuck this," he said. Daiki wrestled free of the sheet and stood, casting a final suspcious glance around his room. It was still empty, and he was still a dumbass.

Nothing new.

It was barely four in the morning. Daiki made a cup of instant coffee and sipped at it in front of the television. His mom came in a little after six and dropped down next to him on the sofa.

"It's not good for you to be up all night," she said, stealing the remote and flipping it to some daytime drama rerun.

Daiki grunted at her. Then he closed his eyes.

He was late to school that morning.

~

"Dai-chan!" Satsuki's pink hair appeared over the edge of the ladder, followed quickly by a familiar scowl. "You missed two classes!"

Daiki closed his eyes again. "I was late, and I didn't feel like getting yelled at. Leave it alone." He heard her lay down next to him, her long hair flopping onto his face. He waved it away irritably and rolled onto his side.

"I'm worried about you."

"You're always worried."

Tetsu's back was painted on the inside of his eyelids. Daiki opened his eyes. "It's bad for your health," he said, looking over at Satsuki.

She pouted. "I can't decide if you sound more like Midorin or your mother."

"I'm tired," Daiki whined. "Go away until lunch."

Satsuki sat up and jabbed him in the gut. "Don't just dismiss me like that!" But the way she broke into giggles when Daiki groaned and rolled into a fetal position ruined the stern scolding. 

"If you're only up here to abuse me--"

"I don't abuse you," Satsuki informed him. "Everything I do is out of love."

"Abuse," Daiki said. "Horrific abuse."

Satsuki, of course, continue to ignore his every word. "I actually wanted to ask you," and here her smile faded, her eyes cutting to the side. It was a clear sign of nerves. Daiki knew whatever she had to say was something he likely didn't want to hear. "Have you called Tetsu-kun?"

Daiki was right. He _didn't_ want to hear that. He sat up, edging his body toward the ladder. "I said leave it alone." There wasn't a drop of humor in his voice. "Tetsu-kun, Tetsu-kun," he snapped, "if you say his name again--"

"I thought things were better!" Satsuki grabbed his arm before he could try to leave. "After he won--after the winter cup--I thought everything would go back to normal!"

"It can't!" Daiki's shout echoed. He slumped, staring down at his lap. "It can't go back to normal, Satsuki. That's not how this shit works." 

"Oh, Dai-chan," she sighed. She dragged him closer, pulling until he'd laid his head in her lap. "I'll let you nap this once," she said, "but only if you promise to at least _think_ about calling Tetsu-kun."

Like she'd leave him alone if he didn't. But Satsuki's presence was relaxing, and for the first time since those weird nightmares, he felt like he could really rest. "Fine."

Her fingers carded through his hair. "You really should be better to yourself," she murmured. Her voice was quiet enough that Daiki didn't think she meant him to hear.

He kept his eyes closed. He no longer knew the difference between being good to himself and being selfish.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the support!

Daiki slept through third period and the first half of lunch. When he woke up Satsuki had her back pressed to the wall and her eyes trained on the screen of her phone. She was smiling, though, which meant she wasn't still thinking about what happened before. Daiki didn't think he could handle another emotional moment that day - or that week. Month. Whatever, he was pretty done with feelings.

"Waking up finally?" She looked down at him. He could see the screen of her phone and made a face.

"You're playing one of those BL games?"

Satsuki went red and clutched her phone to her chest. "Like you're any better!"

"Gravure is an _art_." He sat up and stretched, rolling to his feet in one smooth motion before offering Satsuki a hand.

"My legs went numb." She winced, stumbling when he pulled her up. "Ugh, pins and needles! You're too heavy, Dai-chan." She rubbed her legs, leaning on him to brace herself, then straightened. "Now, go to class! _And_ don't forget practice. If you skip, I'll call your mother."

"What kind of threat is that?" Daiki demanded. He didn't need to tell her it was an effective one. It saw him to his fourth period class, sitting in his desk and frowning at nothing well before the teacher began the lesson. He still wondered if he'd wake up and care one day. He thought losing would be a magic button, a reminder there were still things to live for, but his fit of ennui that began in middle school seemed endless. Maybe he'd die like that.

Satsuki was already starting in on him about second year being right around the corner, about needing to start thinking about the future. Grades? College? Career advisement? What was the point? Daiki could play basketball, could do it better than anyone - _almost anyone_ \- and if he wasn't going to play basketball, he didn't know what else to do. Fall of the face of the Earth, probably.

The teacher stumbled over his name during roll call. Daiki sank down in his seat when the majority of the students' heads turned to stare at him like a sideshow attraction. Was it really so surprising to see him in class on time? 

If they expected his presence to be a sign that he was turning over a new leaf, they'd be disappointed. As soon as the teacher turned to the black board to start the lesson, Daiki's attention went to his phone, carefully hidden under the desk - a perk of sitting in the back of the room.

His stupid wandering mind pulled up Tetsu's old texts again, scrolling through them on autopilot. He probably knew them by heart, loser that he was. Daiki frowned, gaze flickering up to the teacher to make sure he was still distracted before jumping to a specific message dated just a week previous: _Call me. I don't care if it's at 3 AM. I want to hear your voice._ Reading _that_ the first time around was enough to set his face on fire, and even with several days of distance, Daiki's heart thudded unnaturally loud in his chest. Tetsu was an embarrassing guy, but even for him that was too much. _Like a love letter_ , his mind helpfully supplied.

Daiki fumbled with the phone, almost dropping it. 

That was a sign. That was _definitely_ a sign that he needed to put his phone away and think about something else. Tetsu, though, was never far from his thoughts, always a lingering presence at the edge of his mind, the ghost that never left him alone. 

Things should be different. Daiki kept getting stuck in what ifs, wondering what could have been. If he'd been different in Teiko, had listened to Tetsu and kept believing - where would they be? Tetsu would be in his class, obviously. They would have won the Winter Cup, ripped right out of Akashi's hands. Tetsu and Satsuki would be ganging up on him about college. They'd all go together, of course, as inseparable as they'd been from the first moment they came together in middle school.

Daiki buried his face in his arms on top of his desk. More bullshit, that's all his brain could spin anymore. Pile upon pile of bullshit that was pointless to think about anyway because _it would never happen_. He'd kissed that future goodbye when he left Tetsu standing in the rain. Kagami, though - he'd be the one Tetsu bugged. About practice, about school, about the future - just like Kagami beat him in basketball, he'd also beat Daiki where it mattered most. Tetsu was as good as his.

...The way he thought about it bugged him. Daiki's brain processed anything Tetsu relate like Tetsu was some _thing_ that belonged to him, not like he was a person Daiki just happened to know. It was the kind of stray thought he couldn't seem to get away from, and the more he ignored Tetsu, the worse it got. "What the hell," he muttered, low enough that the teacher couldn't hear but loud enough that his desk neighbor hissed at him to shut up. Daiki ignored him. He was having a damn _crisis_. Where was the sympathy?

The teacher's voice droned on, and Daiki felt his eyelids drooping. The nap he'd gotten on the roof hadn't helped; if anything, he was more tired than before. Tired and warm and being lulled to sleep by combined forces of boredom and mathematics after lunch. So powerful a combination it was that Daiki felt like he'd barely closed his eyes before he was suddenly sitting in his bedroom.

It was one of those odd dreams where he _knew_ it was a dream but couldn't control anything. He sat on his bed with a box of his old Mai-chan magazines, pulling them out one by one and flipping through them. But instead of Mai-chan's curvy body and sultry smile, he realized he was looking at Tetsu. There wasn't a damn thing about it that was sexual. Tetsu when he slept over once in their second year of middle school, Tetsu drinking a vanilla shake, Tetsu holding a basketball, Tetsu smiling at him with his fist outstretched.

Tetsu, Tetsu, Tetsu.

"This is bullshit," he said. The magazines continued to feature nothing but Tetsu, and Daiki continued to feel a mixture of anger and arousal. Tetsu wasn't even _doing_ anything, was just existing, but Daiki couldn't stop looking like the images were the most enticing thing he'd ever come across. And what the hell was he doing, getting hard thinking about _Tetsu_ of all people, Tetsu who was definitely male and - worst of all - had no boobs. Tetsu should belong in the same sacred category as Satsuki where he boxed away even the slightest hint of a possibility of feelings or desires outside of the platonic, but there was no guilt. 

He'd gotten to a picture of Tetsu in the locker room, his shirt pulled up and his chest showing. Daiki's eyes were glued to the image, but the real world apparently sensed that he was enjoying himself and decided to intervene in the form of his fuming instructor lobbing an eraser at his head. Daiki woke up with a chalky imprint on his face and absently gave the man kudos for nailing him from the front of the room before he realized he was half hard. He muttered an apology to the instructor and managed not to look as mortified as he felt. He hadn't popped a boner in class since he was, like, _twelve_.

What the _fuck_.

~

Daiki managed to make it through it the rest of the school day without suffering any more sexual crises, but he nearly gave up and went home when Wakamatsu greeted him at the start of practice by way of a ball hurtling toward his head. Daiki caught it, his palm stinging, and narrowed his eyes at Wakamatsu.

"Well?" the new captain demanded. "Want to explain why you ditched in the middle of practice yesterday," _asshole_ was left unspoken. Wakamatsu was trying to be a calm, mature captain, to live up to Imayoshi's expectations. Daiki gave him another week, tops.

He threw the ball back, satisfied when Wakamatsu flinched when it hit his hand. "I went to that court," Daiki said. "The haunted one." He'd almost forgotten about it. 

"And?" Ryou stopped dragging the ball cart into place and turned his full attention onto Daiki. "What was it like?"

"Shitty," Daiki said. "Boring. Not haunted. Like I said!" He shrugged. 

"You didn't tell me you did that," Satsuki cut in, accusing. She had a clipboard in one hand and a whistle in the other, looking like some terrifying combination of a physical education coach and a dominatrix. 

"You weren't interested," Daiki reminded her. None of them had been, so the attention he was getting for it now was kind of gratifying. He should have lied and said he encountered the evil spirit or whatever, made a good story of it, but the moment was gone. He'd hit the third string with it when they came in from running laps.

He set about warming up under Satsuki and the captain's watchful eyes, dragging Ryou over to the bleacher to do partner stretching. "Was it really not haunted?" Ryou was apparently crushed that the urban legend was exactly that - a legend.

"Maybe the ghost was busy," Daiki suggested. Ryou did not look less disappointed. 

"You should have taken pictures." Then, catching on to how demanding he sounded, blurted, "I'm sorry! That was rude of me!"

Daiki rolled his eyes and pushed Ryou deeper into the stretch. "Whatever, go yourself next time. It was boring."

The gym always heated up quickly, speeding right past 'comfortable' and straight into 'sauna in Hell', so the doors were left open through practice. The winter air blowing in felt amazing, especially after running suicides for half an hour. Daiki finished his last set and jogged over to the bench for some water when he heard it: a distinctive barking sound. Heads were turning all over the gym, but the mystery solved itself as a familiar black and white dog trotted into the gym, yapping playfully. Daiki recognized it and decided to pretend he didn't, turning his back to the dog and chugging the rest of his water. 

"My apologies, Aomine-kun," a soft voice said from the doorway. "We didn't mean to interrupt practice."

Daiki knew who it was well before Satsuki's shriek of "Tetsu-kun!" echoed through the gym, but he stayed where he was. If he pretended not to notice... No, that was dumb. If Tetsu was there, he'd never leave without accomplishing whatever he'd set out to do, the stubborn bastard. 

"Dai-chan," Satsuki called. And there it was. He recapped his water bottle and set it down on the bench before waving off Wakamatsu's threats "If you ditch again, I'm benching you!" - and jogging to the door.

It was Tetsu. _Of course_ it was Tetsu, like he hadn't realized that before, but knowing it was and seeing him standing there were two different things. Daiki drank in the sight of him, his face flushed from the cold, Nigou clutched securely in his arms. The smile he turned on Daiki was hesitant and smile, like he wasn't sure he was welcome. Daiki shoved his own insecurities aside. 

"Yo, Tetsu," he greeted. "You came a long way."

"You weren't answering your phone," Tetsu said. "I apologize for interrupting practice, but I hoped you'd have a few minutes to speak with me."

Daiki glanced back at the gym. Practice was still going, but there was only fifteen minutes left. He'd have to deal with this eventually, so he might as well - 

As if reading his mind, Satsuki and Tetsu turned twin looks of disapproval on him. "I can wait," Tetsu said sternly. "Finish practice."

"You'll get benched if you don't," Satsuki pointed out. "The captain is serious about it!" Wakamatsu probably was, at least for practice games. He'd always hated the way Imayoshi let Daiki do whatever he wanted. He was probably trying to make a point early on.

"Fine," Daiki said, "whatever. We'll talk after practice."

Tetsu's smile grew, his face softening without the tension from before. "I look forward to it."

Daiki turned around and walked back to the other side of the gym to rejoin practice, his face inexplicably reddening.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the support!

Satsuki must have said something because when practice ended, Wakamatsu just said, "Get out of here," instead of demanding Daiki help clean up. It figured, really, that he'd play the nice guy on the one day Daiki wouldn't have minded prolonging practice.

So Daiki went straight to the locker room and made quick work of showering and getting dressed. He felt weird and self conscious, his feelings feeding into an awful spiral of insecurity that only served to piss him off. It was just Tetsu, but he caught himself checking his hair in the mirror before he left. What was he, a girl now? He must have looked as angry as he felt because Satsuki caught him before he could go to Tetsu.

"Just listen to what he has to say, Dai-chan," she soothed, her hands resting on his upper arm. "Tetsu-kun isn't here to pick a fight."

Well, she was right about that. If it was for a fight, Kagami would have shown up. But that just made it worse. Fighting was easy. Everything else? Not so much. "Stop worrying over nothing," Daiki said like he wasn't mentally crawling up the walls. "I'm heading out."

"Call me when you get home!"

Like she'd let him get away with skimping on the details! Daiki waved her off and made it his way to the other side of the gym. Tetsu had stationed himself by the door, Nigou resting in his lap, for the duration of practice. Daiki felt his eyes on him no matter where he'd been. 

"We're all done," he said, leaning down to stroke Nigou's ears. The dog preened under his attention, sitting tall.

"Good work," Tetsu said. "You've come a long way, Aomine-kun." He let Nigou trot off his lap and wind his way between Daiki's legs before standing up himself. "Is there somewhere private we could speak?"

Right to business, then. How typical of Tetsu. "There's a gazebo in the courtyard, but it's pretty cold..." Tetsu's face was still red just from sitting by the open door. 

"I'm sure it will be fine," Tetsu said. "Though I appreciate the concern. Please lead the way." He'd already shouldered his bag and fastened his puffy black jacket, his similarly colored scarf wrapped around his face and neck. He looked like a big black marshmallow with a tuft of blue at the top, and Daiki couldn't stop himself from reaching out to ruffle his hair.

"All right, all right. Let's get going." He carefully avoided looking back at Satsuki. He couldn't stand it when she gave him that smug, knowing look. It was bad enough just _feeling_ it.

Daiki led Tetsu to the gazebo, a quaint wooden structure put together in honor of a teacher who died years before Daiki ever heard of Touou. Nigou followed them, stopping to bat at leaves the wind blew across his path. "So?" Daiki asked, leaning against one of the wooden support beams. "You've come a long way just to watch the end of practice."

"I wasn't here for that," Tetsu said like they both didn't know what he was doing there. "It was nice to watch, but I have more of a personal reason for being here."

"Shoot."

"Will we never be close again?"

Daiki startled, catching himself with a hand on the railing before he could fall. No matter that he'd known it was coming, he hadn't expected Tetsu to dive in so bluntly. "Things are messed up," he said after gathering himself together. "I don't know what to do."

"You don't have to do anything." Tetsu pursed his lips. "Well, you _could_ answer your phone once in a while. I imagine that would be a step in the right direction."

"I don't know what to say to you," Daiki said, swallowing his pride for the sake of honesty. "I'm sorry? I was wrong? I don't see how words can fix anything."

"You're talking like everything that happened was your fault. It wasn't, Aomine-kun. We both share the blame for our falling out." Frustration flashed across Tetsu's face, brief but explosive. "I never meant to make you feel otherwise."

Daiki shrugged, hoping he didn't look as uncomfortable as he felt. "It doesn't matter. It's over."

"But that's just it," Tetsu said. He took a few steps, closing the distance between them. Daiki watched the breath steam from Tetsu's mouth in the cold air, fascinated by the rosy glow of his cheeks. "I don't want it to be over, Aomine-kun." Another long pause. Tetsu looked down and swallowed. "I miss you. Please tell me what to do to make things better again."

Daiki felt like he'd stumbled into an alternate reality. What the hell was Tetsu doing, begging _him_ to forgive him, to supply some way to mend their relationship? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Tetsu deserved so much more than Daiki had ever given him, _could_ give him. He didn't deserve Tetsu's forgiveness.

So it was a good thing, he decided, that Daiki was a selfish man. "You're as embarrassing as ever," he groused, shoving his hands in the pockets of his coat for lack of anything better to do with them. "Don't be stupid, Tetsu. We're still friends. That's not going to change."

Tetsu was still frowning when his gaze shot back up from his feet to Daiki's face. "But you--"

"I'm an idiot," Daiki said. "You _know_ I'm an idiot. Maybe I just needed you to come over here and knock some sense into me." The gruffness he tried to project would be a hell of a lot more convincing if he could actually look at Tetsu, if his face wasn't burning, but he could see the way Tetsu's face broke into a grin. His pride could take a few more hits if Tetsu kept looking at him like that. "Don't worry so much," he ordered, stepping closer and tucking Tetsu under his arm. "You do stupid things when you worry."

"You do stupid things in general," came Tetsu's muffled reply. He forced Daiki's arm out of the way so he could look up. "Come play basketball with me on Sunday."

That felt like a test. "With you and...?"

"Me and Kagami-kun," Tetsu clarified without hesitation. "I wouldn't be a challenge for you on my own."

Daiki knew if he said no, the rift between him and Tetsu would only widen. If he said yes, that meant willingly spending more time with Kagami. "Fuck," he muttered. "Fine. Fine! But no surprises, Tetsu. Not a damn one."

Tetsu, straight faced, held up his fist. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Daiki bumped their fists together, feeling impossibly warm despite the winter air bearing down on them.

~

They walked as far as they could together before parting ways. Tetsu extracted another promise to meet with him and Kagami on Sunday. Daiki enjoyed the banter, so he didn't bother telling Tetsu there was no way he could say no to him anymore. It would just kill the fun.

Tetsu left him near the station, and Daiki walked the rest of the three blocks to his apartment like he was floating. All of the day's insecurities went right down the drain the face of Tetsu's determination. How could he ever think Tetsu would hate him? He knew doubt would creep up again eventually, but Daiki wasn't enough of a masochist to refuse to enjoy the moment while it lasted.

The building was completely dark. According to a sign posted on the elevator, the power had been off since early morning. Daiki muttered curses under his breath the entire way up the stairs. How much did they pay to live there? Enough that his mother didn't do anything but work, and the damn building couldn't keep the power on?

He had to use his phone as a light to unlock his door and then again to navigate through the apartment. His mother left a note on the table reminding him that she'd picked up another overnight shift at the hospital and that she'd left dinner for him in the fridge. He was used to it, but she never failed to leave him a note. She probably felt guilty for leaving him alone so much, but the joke was on her. Daiki felt guilty for _making_ her work so much.

The note hadn't said anything about the power being out, so it must have happened after she left. Daiki hoped everything in the fridge was still good. He held his phone out in front of him as he walked to his room to drop his bag off, but when he pushed his door opened, something caused it to stick, like something was pushing up against it. Daiki had just enough room to squeeze through the gap. 

His room had been destroyed.

The closet door was open, pressing against the bedroom door so it couldn't open fully. Everything in his closet was spread across the room. His desk chair was turn over in the middle of the floor, and his mattress was half off the frame, the sheets and pillows ripped off and tossed haphazardly around the room. 

"What the fuck?" Daiki dropped his bag, surveying the damage. He didn't have a window. His room was an interior room, so for anyone to get to his room, they'd have to get in through either the front door or his mother's room, the only outward facing room in the apartment. Daiki couldn't begin to guess what anyone would want from his room, but his mother had jewelry, probably kept money somewhere in the room as well.

Had someone taken advantage of the power outage and broken in? Maybe the neighbors were having the same problem? Daiki briefly considered calling the cops, but his anger overpowered his logic. Someone trashed his room, probably broke shit they couldn't afford to fix, and maybe even stole shit from his mother? Daiki wanted _blood_ , and he wanted it right that second. The cops could get whatever was left over.

He jammed the closet door shut and stormed down the hall to his mother's room. The entire apartment was freezing without the heat going. Even through the haze of his anger, Daiki was surprised to see his breath so clearly while inside. It would take forever to heat the place up again.

Throwing his mother's door open, he stepped inside and looked around. Nothing. Not a single thing was out of place, nothing thrown around, nothing pulled out of drawers. The closet was closed, and the window looked untouched. 

"What the hell is this?" Daiki demanded. If they didn't come in through his mother's window, then they'd gotten in through the front door. But the front door had been locked and obviously not tampered with! "This is bullshit," he muttered. He started to turn back to the door when the oddest sensation struck him.

Daiki didn't consider himself easily spooked. He was a big guy and knew exactly how strong he was. A home intruder probably couldn't overpower him. But for a moment, the already cool air of the room dropped in temperature even further. Daiki felt a chill sweep down his spine and knew without looking that someone was watching him.

Bullshit, he wanted to say again. Standing in the dark was enough to spook anyone, especially after seeing their stuff destroyed. But he couldn't deny the way his hand shook as he held his phone up, pointing the dim light of his phone around the room. Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. Until he passed the light across his mother's vanity.

The vanity was enormous, with a long mirror stretching across the top of it. The mirror stood across from the bedroom door, and as Daiki swept the light over it, the chill in the room dipped below freezing. Behind him stood a person, a foreboding dark figure in the hall. Daiki locked eyes with it and felt his heart stop. Someone was in his house, someone was fucking _in his house--_

But before Daiki could swing around and lash out, the figure vanished. Gone. Daiki was left staring at the mirror, his face several shades paler, with an empty space behind him. The room remained cold. The apartment remained dark. And through it all, Daiki never lost it: the sensation of being watched. 


End file.
